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Ingmar Bergman
Biography from Baseline's Encyclopedia of Film
Occupation: Director, screenwriter
Birth Name: Ernst Ingmar Bergman
Born: July 14, 1918, Uppsala, Sweden
Education: University of Stockholm (literature, art history)
Universally regarded as one of the great masters of modern cinema, Bergman
has often concerned himself with spiritual and psychological conflicts. His work
has evolved in distinct stages over four decades, while his visual
style-intense, intimate, complex-has explored the vicissitudes of passion with a
mesmerizing cinematic rhetoric. His prolific output tends to return to and
elaborate on recurrent images, subjects and techniques. Like the Baroque
composers, Bergman works on a small scale, finding invention in theme and
variation. Bergman works primarily in the chamber cinema genre, although there
are exceptions, such as the journey narrative of
Wild
Strawberries (1957) and
the family epic of
Fanny and
Alexander (1983). Chamber cinema encloses space and
time, permitting the director to focus on mise-en-scène and to pay careful
attention to metaphoric detail and visual rhythm.
Perhaps his most expressive
technique is his use of the facial close-up. For Bergman, the face, along with
the hand, allows the camera to reveal the inner aspects of human emotion. His
fascination with the female face can be seen most strikingly in
Persona (1966)
and Cries and
Whispers (1972). In his autobiography, Bergman claimed that he was
always trying to generate his mother's face; hence, a psychological and
aesthetic need are realized in this cinematic signature.
Of the early period, Wild Strawberries stands out for its narrative invention in a fluid manipulation
of flashbacks, reveries and dream sequences. Its penetrating psychological
investigation of the closing of the life cycle established Bergman's
preoccupation with the relationship between desire, loss, guilt, compassion,
restitution and celebration.
Sawdust and
Tinsel (1953)/Naked Night, more
allegorical than Wild Strawberries, is likewise designed around a journey motif
of existential crisis. In contrast, the Mozartian
Smiles of a
Summer Night
(1955) displays Bergman's romantic, comic sensibility. The early period
concludes with two symbolic works,
The Seventh Seal (1957) and
The Virgin
Spring
(1959), both set in the Middle Ages. The extreme long shot in The Seventh
Seal
of Death leading the peasants in silhouette across the horizon now forms part of
the iconography of modern cinema.
The second stage of Bergman's cinematic
evolution shifts to the chamber style. Intense spiritual and psychological
themes are explored in the "Silence" trilogy (Through
a Glass Darkly,
1961, Winter
Light, 1962,
The Silence, 1963), and in
The Shame (1968),
Hour of the Wolf (1968) and
The Passion of
Anna (1969), three films all set on the
island of Faro. With its dialectical editing and expressive compositions, The
Silence is considered one of Bergman's most artfully structured films.
The Passion of Anna, with its innovative application of red motifs, marked Bergman's
first use of color photography.
Between these two trilogies came
Persona,
a work many critics consider Bergman's masterpiece. Persona shares a similar
look and ambience with the Faro trilogy, and has direct links with The
Silence
in its focus on the antagonistic relationship between two women. Yet, with its
distinctly avant-garde style and rhythm, it stands apart from any other of
Bergman's films. Ostensibly concerned with identity crisis and the role reversal
of a nurse and her mentally ill patient, the subtext of the film explores the
nature of the cinematic apparatus itself. The narrative is framed by opening and
closing shots of a film strip, projector and light, which lead into and out of
the figure of a young boy. With his directorial hand, the boy conjures up a
gigantic close-up of the female face. In a now celebrated sequence, the two
faces of the female protagonists dissolve into one. (The figure of the
precocious, magical child, previously seen in The Silence, would later reappear
in the autobiographical Fanny and Alexander, 1983.) Sadomasochistic behavior,
along with problems of role reversal and denied maternity, form the tortured
core of both Persona and Cries and Whispers, the masterwork of the late period.
In contrast to the spare decor, sharp black and white photography and
disjunctive editing of Persona and Cries and Whispers is a 19th-century Gothic
period-piece featuring rich colors, draped, theatrical decor and muted dissolve
editing. The film revolves around three sisters, one of whom, Agnes, is dying,
and their maid, Anna. Bergman evokes religious iconography, with each of the
three sisters representing various theological concepts. The dying Agnes, set in
cruciform position, returns as a resurrected savior/prophet. The exquisite Pietà/birth
shot of Agnes and the Maid, as well as the revolutionary dissolve red-outs, are
highlights in this brutal and beautiful film.
Even the minor films of Bergman's
later period, such as Face to Face (1976),
Autumn Sonata (1978) and
From the Life of the Marionettes (1980) continue to explore and refine recurrent themes
and techniques. In the underrated The Touch (1971), Bergman examines the theme
of marriage, with an inventive subtext of the Persephone myth, in a visually
expansive way that distinguishes it from the more conventional
Scenes From
a Marriage (1973). The cycle of Bergman's work appropriately concludes with
Fanny and Alexander, an epic of family romance, touched with elements of fairy tale,
horror and ghost story. All the preoccupations of Bergman's extraordinary career
flow through the imagery, action and stylization of the film.
Continuing his
exploration of family relationships, Bergman drew inspiration from the marriage
of his own parents to write the autobiographical screenplay for
The Best Intentions (1992), which Bergman entrusted to director Bille August after
announcing his retirement from filmmaking. As an artist, Bergman pays homage to
music and theater in general, to Bach, Mozart and Strindberg in particular. His
work seems a synthesis of the internalized Swedish sensibility and harsh
Scandinavian landscape, yet he speaks to a universal vision of human passion.
Although apparently not influenced by other filmmakers, with the possible
exception of Carl Dreyer, Bergman himself has had a wide-ranging influence on a
generation of filmmakers. A unique and powerful presence, his genius has made an
extraordinary contribution to the art of the cinema.
>> Ingmar
Bergman Filmography
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